WASHINGTON—The Senate Commerce Committee pulled the Protecting Consumer Phone Records Act from consideration.
The committee was “concerned that because of a series of stacked votes on the Senate floor, it would be too difficult for members to fully debate and vote on amendments that a number of committee members, both Republicans and Democrats, intended to offer to the phone-records bill,” said a statement released two hours before the scheduled start of the meeting.
The action came as state regulators were waging a fight against a provision in the bill that would eliminate state-regulatory oversight of telephone records and allow only state attorneys general to sue to stop privacy violations.
“It’s unfortunate that the Protecting Consumer Phone Records Act limits state enforcement solely to federal lawsuits by the ‘chief legal officer’ of the state. State commissions are equipped to handle literally hundreds of thousands of consumer complaints each year, often resolving disputed issues informally in a matter of weeks. In many states, the public-service commission is the designated agency for phone records privacy complaints and the place where expertise with the telecommunications industry is strongest,” said Ron Jones, chairman of the consumer affairs committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and chairman of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority.
Wireless carriers consistently fight for pre-emption from state regulation. The carriers argue that they offer a national service that is not affected by state boundaries, and that complying with dozens of different states’ regulations would be burdensome.
“There is no reason for such limitations on state enforcement or enhanced state fines as only bad actors will face compliance actions,” countered James Bradford Ramsay, NARUC general counsel.
In addition to NARUC’s advocacy, some state commissions have been targeting their individual senators. The Montana Public Service Commission said in a letter to its lawmakers that one of its goals is consumer protection.
“Montana telecommunications consumers see us as their first line of defense when their rights are infringed. We doubt that the Federal Communications Commission or the Federal Trade Commission could step in and supplant this important function of states even for just the issue of fraudulent use of phone records,” said Greg Jergeson, MPSC chairman.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has already passed its version of a cell-phone privacy bill.
The potential for a debate in the Senate over pre-emption was previewed last week when several members of the House Commerce Committee said they hoped the states could be pre-empted in the final bill even though the House version did not contain a pre-emption provision.
The House Commerce Committee last week quickly passed a bill making the sale of telecommunications customer call records illegal. The bill also gives the FCC and the FTC added tools to restrict the sale of call records, and requires that customers first give their permission before their personal call data is used for marketing.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, told reporters that he hopes to pass a finished bill to President Bush within a few months.
Separately, the House Judiciary Committee recently passed a bill criminalizing pretexting—impersonating a customer to obtain call records. Barton said he expects the two bills to be combined before the full House votes on the issue.
The wireless industry expressed reservations about the House Commerce Committee bill.
In the only amendment offered during the House Commerce Committee consideration, customers would be required to give permission for their cell-phone numbers to be listed in a wireless-phone directory. Some in the industry support creating a 411 directory for wireless-phone numbers, but privacy advocates have pushed for Congress to act before the directory can be created.
Several states also have legislation and criminal investigations pending. Just this week the California attorney general filed a $10 million lawsuit against a pretexter.
In addition to legislative action, the FCC recently proposed strengthening the protection of customer call records. Last month, the commission began seeking comment on five specific measures proposed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center on the topic. Although the customer-call-records scandal erupted in early January following a segment aired on the CBS Evening News, EPIC first raised the issue last August. EPIC asked that the FCC implement rules to protect customers’ call records. The wireless industry opposed the EPIC petition.
